KPMG Legal appoints Kate Eades and Usman Wahid as Partners
KPMG has once more strengthened its legal services team as it ramps up pressure on traditional law firms in the UK. Kate Eades and Usman Wahid have both joined as Partners from legal firms in London, and each bring approximately 15 years of experience to the Big Four giant.
KPMG Global Legal Services reported record growth in 2018, skyrocketing by more than 30%. The practice now has in excess of 2,300 legal professionals worldwide, including more than 20 new Partners added during 2018. In order to meet the rising demand for its services, KPMG’s legal arm has also sought to continue the marked expansion of its talent base and network into 2019. This led to the firm becoming the latest member of the Big Four to announce it would launch a legal consulting arm in the UK in 2019.
As KPMG has sought to rapidly expand its new wing in the UK, it has brought on board a number of new staff. Following the launch of KPMG’s legal consultancy service for in-house lawyers, the firm appointed Nicola Brooks to head the service, while in the firm’s Midlands hub, Peter Workman joined KPMG as a Partner from PwC to lead a team of nine business structuring and transaction lawyers there. Now, two more senior experts have been appointed as Partners in the Big Four firm’s legal services team, strengthening KPMG’s business restructuring and transactions group in London.
Kate Eades brings more than 15 years of experience in corporate law to KPMG. Most recently she was a Partner at Greenberg Taurig, where she spent 10 years of her career. Previously, she was a Solicitor at Mayer Brown, following her studies at the University of Leeds, where she obtained a BA in German & Management Studies in 1999.
Eades’ experience in corporate law is spread across a wide variety of industry sectors with particular experience in the life sciences and the hospitality and leisure sectors. Her focus at KPMG will be on mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, joint ventures and other equity investments in addition to general corporate advisory work.
Usman Wahid specialises in IT/technology and outsourcing transactions and has advised clients on business critical software, systems and infrastructure deals as well as arrangements for new and disruptive technology. His sector expertise lies in utilities, financial services (including fintech), transportation, data centres and telecoms.
Prior to joining KPMG Wahid was a Partner with Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, the firm he was with since 2005, where he focused on the commercial and technology arenas. He has more than 15 years of experience in commercial law, having also held roles at Baker & McKenzie and T-Mobile. He holds an LPC in Law from the College of Law, London.
